Seeking Asylum from Detention Centres

Yesterday afternoon several young people entered the Department of Immigration shortly before office closing hours and chained themselves to posts.

Enter the jumbo-sized police rescue van, a few bored looking police officers and a couple of ABC cameramen.

A woman in a beret passed out flyers and a young lady paced outside, wearing combat pants and boots.

Passer-bys paid scant attention as they hurried along the windswept pavement.

As far as protests go, it was a fairly low-key affair.

In fact, I would have missed the site of civil unrest completely lest a grim faced law enforcer had not stopped me from walking near the Department building.

However, peeking below the closed blinds of the office, you could just discern the heads of the embattled young people in a dispute with police.

They were arrested and escorted from the premises.

So why spend a Tuesday afternoon handcuffed inside a government building?

Protesters were incensed by what they described as consistently inhumane government policy towards asylum seekers entering Australia.

The news that morning had shown 11 asylum seekers sitting on the roof of Villawood Detention Centre, threatening to jump at 5 pm if their claims for asylum were not reassessed by the government.

Quite a serious warning, given that a Fijian man had fallen to his death the day before after pleading with immigration officials to reconsider his deportation.

Josefa Raulini was allegedly told by Villawood staff to “jump” on to a mattress just before he met his death.

Suicidal behavior and self harm have become common occurrences at Villawood Detention Centre, where detainees are becoming increasingly frustrated over indefinite periods of detention and being treated worse than criminals for daring to apply for protection visas.

It is a fact that notorious serial killer Ivan Milat receives more privileges from inside Gouldbourn’s Supermax jail – television, radio, jug, sandwich maker, visitor and telephone rights – than your average traumatized refugee.

Former Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock described self mutilation by detainees as “inappropriate behavior” and that “in many parts of the world people will get outcomes by behaving that way… its cultural.”

The current government seems to share this inhospitable view, as seen in their freezing of processing claims for Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also announced a tough new policy to turn back asylum seekers arriving by boat.

However, the vast majority of asylum seekers arrive by air.

The government’s hostility to asylum seekers has become increasingly inexplicable. Claims that boats are bringing terrorists to Australia are baseless, with counter-terrorism experts stating that the threat of terrorists entering Australia this way is infinitesimally small. It is puzzling that a terrorist would use this mode of transportation anyway, as they would inevitably face years of delay before entering Australian society.

Another argument against fulfilling our obligations as signatories of the United Nations Refugee Convention is that asylum seekers are bludging off government benefits.

The claim that refugees cost the taxpayer $628 is a lie being shamelessly perpetrated by commercial media. Centrelink and the welfare department have each come out to denounce this, stating there is no data to support this figure. Only about 3% of Centrelink customers who were in receipt of a Newstart Allowance income support payment at 30 June 2009 held a refugee and humanitarian or permanent protection visa.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship states that immigration currently provides sixty percent of our population growth, but within the next few years it will be the only source of net labor force growth in Australia.

Despite this evidence, potential attributes to Australian society are still being treated as hardened criminals.

This all points to a disturbing trend; detention centres are the problem, not asylum seekers.